In a statement, Shashi Tharoor said that dragging his late wife Sunanda Pushkar into a debate over The Kashmir Files was ‘unwarranted and contemptible.’
Shashi Tharoor, a Congress MP, responded to social media attacks by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and actor Anupam Kher, the two most prominent faces behind the recent box office hit The Kashmir Files, which Tharoor had described as a “film promoted by India’s ruling party.”
Tharoor had tweeted about the film’s failure to secure a release in Singapore, to which Agnihotri and Kher responded by invoking Tharoor’s late wife, Kashmiri Pandit Sunanda Pushkar. They asked him to remember her and not make light of the Pandit community’s suffering. Pushkar passed away in a hotel room in New Delhi in 2014.
Tharoor stated on Twitter, without naming Agnihotri or Kher, clarifying that he had not seen The Kashmir Files and had simply tweeted facts.
“It was unwarranted and contemptible to drag my late wife Sunanda into this.” Nobody is more aware of her perspectives than I am. I accompanied her to the ruins of her ancestral home in Bomai, near Sopore, and participated in conversations with her Muslim and Hindu Kashmiri neighbors and friends.” One thing I know, in contrast to those who want to abuse her when she is unable to speak for herself: she believed in reconciliation rather than animosity,” he went on to say.
The latter part of his statement appears to address the film’s controversy, which has been chastised for misrepresenting facts and inflaming division. Agnihotri has stated that his intention was only to shed light on a chapter of history that he believes has gone unnoticed. The Kashmir Files became a viral sensation earlier this year, grossing over Rs 350 crore globally. It’s the highest-grossing Hindi film in a year known for producing Bollywood duds.
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